The hunger was a living, painful sensation, gnawing at Yuan Lin's insides. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It wasn't just an empty stomach; it was a void on a cellular level, a scream from every atom in his body demanding fuel, energy, anything to feed that single, orphaned spark of Qi he had created.
He was staring at the power socket on the wall, a frantic look in his eyes. The bright blue threads of electrical energy looked like an incredibly delicious meal. His mouth watered, a primal urge to gnaw on the wires and suck out that power.
"Get a grip, man," he said to himself out loud, taking a step back. "You're not a toaster. You can't eat electricity."
He was in a bind. Cultivation required energy, but the energy in his world was either "polluted" with random data like Wi-Fi, or directly dangerous like electricity. He had to find a solution.
"System," he thought with intense focus. "This energy hunger is a problem. The energy around me is either dirty or dangerous. Where can a beginner like me, in a low-energy world like this, find a stable source of 'Chaos Energy' for cultivation?"
The System's reply was as cold and logical as ever.
`[Analysis: "Chaos Energy" is the foundational energy of creation and destruction. It exists in trace amounts in all phenomena. Higher concentrations can be found in locations experiencing significant "energetic entropy."]`
"Entropy... what?" Yuan Lin felt like he was back in high school physics class. "Speak in a language I can understand!"
`[Clarification: "Energetic Entropy" is a state of disorder and decay in an energy system. Examples of high-entropy locations in this reality include: industrial waste incinerators, massive data server graveyards, nuclear waste disposal sites (highly not recommended), and junkyards for discarded electronics.]`
Yuan Lin's eyes froze on the last words. A junkyard.
The idea was both disgusting and brilliant. A place full of dead and dying technology, each piece still retaining a ghostly remnant of its electrical energy. It was a graveyard, but for him, it could be... a feast.
An hour later, Yuan Lin was standing in front of a rusty iron fence, surrounding a vast expanse of tangled metal hills under the pale moonlight. This was the city's outskirts junkyard. The smell of ozone, rusted metal, and burnt oil filled the air.
He hopped over the fence with relative ease thanks to his slightly fortified body and landed inside. Using his `[Perception]`, he didn't just see piles of trash. He saw a cemetery of energy threads. Faint gray threads emanating from old refrigerators, flickering blue threads from broken computer monitors, weak threads of every color seeping from dead appliances. It was a bleak and chaotic sight.
And it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He found a quiet spot for himself between a mountain of old washing machines and a tower of shattered television sets. He sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes.
This time, he wasn't trying to focus on a single thread. He opened his senses and used his `[Chaos Grip]` to start pulling all those dying threads toward him. The process was like using a spiritual vacuum cleaner. The energy he was absorbing was "dirty" and full of noise, but it was better than nothing.
He felt that small spark in his lower abdomen begin to warm, growing very slowly. He felt a sense of satisfaction, engrossed in his own private "feast."
He didn't realize he wasn't the only being who considered this yard his territory.
It started with a low growl. Yuan Lin opened his eyes. From between the shadows, four shapes emerged. They weren't human. They were stray dogs, but they were bigger and fiercer than any dogs he had ever seen. Their eyes glowed with a faint yellow light in the dark, and their teeth were bared in an aggressive snarl. This was their hunting ground, and he was the intruder.
He slowly got to his feet. A feeling of cold danger replaced the warmth of cultivation.
"Alright, guys," he whispered. "I think we got off on the wrong foot."
The dogs were not in the mood for dialogue. The one that seemed to be the leader, a huge beast with matted gray fur, let out a sharp bark and lunged at him.
Yuan Lin's reaction was instinctive. He jumped aside, narrowly dodging the attack. His fortified body was what saved him from losing his balance.
But he knew he couldn't keep dodging. He wasn't a fighter. But he was no longer completely weak.
When another dog attacked, he didn't retreat. He took a step forward and threw a punch. It wasn't a skilled punch, but a desperate move driven by adrenaline. But thanks to `[Body Fortification]`, his punch was harder than an ordinary person's. It connected with the dog's skull. The dog let out a yelp of pain and surprise and stumbled back.
But the other dogs were closing in. They had him surrounded.
"No more forced enhancements," he thought desperately. "The pain is unbearable." He had to use what he had. What he had earned himself.
He focused on that tiny spark of Qi energy inside him. It was still small and unstable, but it was all he had.
The lead dog attacked again, this time leaping for his throat.
In that moment, Yuan Lin did something based on pure instinct, something he felt from the depths of the `[Gray Chaos Scripture]`. He pushed that small spark of Qi from the center of his body, through his arm, and poured it into his fist as he threw another punch to meet the attacking dog.
There was no explosion or bright light.
But the moment his fist touched the dog's body, the animal let out a sharp, horrifying shriek, as if it had been hit with a powerful electric shock. Its body flew through the air and slammed into a pile of rusted metal, where it lay whimpering.
It wasn't the force of the punch, but the nature of the Qi itself. Pure Chaos Energy was toxic and harmful to living beings.
The three remaining dogs looked at their fallen leader, then at Yuan Lin. They no longer saw just a human; they saw something dangerous and unnatural. They let out a frightened whine, turned, and fled into the darkness of the junkyard.
Yuan Lin stood in his place, panting, his heart pounding violently. His hand hurt, and he had scratches on his arms, but he had won. He had won his first real fight with the power he had cultivated himself.
A quiet system notification appeared.
`[First successful combat application of "Gray Chaos Energy" achieved. Qi has been stabilized. Combat experience gained. Cultivation progress: 0.0003%.]`
Yuan Lin laughed breathlessly. All that fighting for a 0.0002% progress.
But it wasn't about the number. It was about the feeling. The fierce, primal satisfaction that washed over him. It wasn't just the satisfaction of survival, but the satisfaction of a predator.
He looked at his fist, where he could still feel the echo of that chaotic energy. Then he looked around at the hills of electronic junk. They no longer looked like a graveyard.
Now, they looked like... a dining table. His own secret restaurant.
A cold, satisfied smile formed on his face in the darkness. The hunger inside him hadn't completely subsided, but it was now mixed with a new kind of hunger. A hunger for more of this power he had earned with his own sweat and blood.
He had finally found his hunting ground.